


Shelter and Shade

by asterysk



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24514363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asterysk/pseuds/asterysk
Summary: The prince didn't know what he wanted. He didn't get the time to think.(A short look into a young Ganondorf, featuring lots of my headcanons lol whoops)
Kudos: 10





	Shelter and Shade

If you looked out from the top of the canyon with keen eyes, you could see green. Not just flecks - whole swathes of lush growth that stretched as far as the sands did in the other direction. 

He had never seen a forest up close, but the scouts and raiding parties had added sketches of the lands beyond to the textbooks. The thought of plants able to give significant shade was bewildering - in the wastes, such excessive growth would see any foolish specimen scorched to a crisp. No, the only shade and shelter here was to be found in the barren stone.

An arid wind blew, stinging with heat and sand, and the young prince sighed. Staying out in the heat of the day was unwise, but the thought of going back was worse. More lessons, more overbearing attendants, more of everything else but peace and quiet. Instead, he shuffled into the shade of the outcrop more, and looked out to the sea of green in the distance.

They said it was supposed to be his.

* * *

"That throne, that kingdom, is yours by their own rules." Koume sneered as she marched him through the passageways of the fort.

"That's right! For people so caught up in etiquette and law, they disregard it so easily..." Kotake chimed in from his other side. "You know the history, surely..."

He didn't get a chance to object. Koume snapped her words, simmering with rage. "Those Hylian jackals- We are the rightful heirs, forced into exile because we dared to stand against tyranny-"

"The crown prince stood against his father... Stood with the servants and the common people..." 

"And they threw them all to the wastes!" 

The sisters stopped suddenly, Koume gripping the wall and Kotake staring into the distance, the prickle of magic palpable in the air leaving the youth stuck in-between them adrift.

He gripped at his sash, playing with the fabric as he fidgeted. "Are... Are you okay?" 

Slowly, Kotake broke out of her trance, her eyes looking at him in one of those rare moments where it felt like he was actually a person to them.

"...Yes, we're fine. It's just, when you have lived as long as us, most things remind you of something else." She spared a glance to her sister, and then back to the prince, now looking through him as if for someone else. A cold hand rested on his shoulder, unnaturally cold given the temperature, and her sigh brought a chill too. "...Once, centuries ago, we thought our exile was over. We thought we were being welcomed back. Then as soon as they didn't need us any more, we were cast back out."

"It wasn't just us." 

Koume's stance had softened slightly, though her knuckles were still pale with how tense she was. "Do you know of the Sheikah? Once they constructed wonders beyond imagining... But they made the mistake of swearing loyalty to the Hylian throne. When the nobles of Hyrule grew resentful, the King stood by and they paid in their blood... Now they are dead, save for those who escaped or hid."

Koume's gaze was as piercing as Kotake's, and the prince felt compelled to look away, to look down. "I... I thought that was a legend..."

Kotake hummed, and brought her hand up to lift his face. "...Our sisters here like to call them the Shadow people. They seem like a desert mirage if you see them at all, but they hide in the cliffs of the Highlands. They are very much real."

"This is why the Hylians can't be trusted. This is why we must strike back." Koume's tone was commanding, the kind of voice that burned away pretences and left you vulnerable. "There is a cycle of destruction and death, and we must stop it. We finally have the opportunity, and you are the key."

His mothers often layed out their plans for him, but never before had they felt so crushing.

Koume shared a glance with Kotake and the pair composed themselves, taking one of his hands each into their own and turning to face him. 

"We think you are ready to take the next step in your learning."

* * *

They had taken him to their secluded chamber, walls lined with the paraphernalia of magic. They had intensified his magical tuition. What wasn't spent on magic was spent on politics and etiquette, things they said would ensure he could work his way into the heart of Hyrule despite being Gerudo. 

They had changed his name.

Gone was the name that had been given to him by his... His real mother.

No, he was now Ganondorf. It sounded more Hylian than Gerudo, with a strange hard F, but Koume and Kotake said it was necessary to win over nobles stuck in their prejudice. They hovered near him near constantly, making sure that everyone adhered to it. 

Every day, back to that chamber to learn and practice magic. The spells increased in complexity until they had gone through all of the magic they had written down, and then they took to spells that the sisters had learned and then destroyed all record of, to stop them from falling into enemy hands.

They had drawn sigils and patterns on the floor of the chamber, and performed rites, and made concoctions, and they had culminated in him standing before some kind of cauldron, bubbling with a dark liquid that made it seem bottomless.

"Touch it," they had said. "It will give you the power and strength you need."

There was no escape or way to object.

He touched the liquid, and it was like a million something's within it touched him too.

Grabbed him.

Embraced him.

The whisper at the back of his mind, there all his life, resolved into a chorus so loud it was almost deafening as the Shadows cried out.

_"Brother; there you are! We have been looking for you!"_

Ganondorf blinked from his haze. The sun had moved in the sky that his shelter was almost in the light, and the shadow of one of his sisters stretched out from behind him. 

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but you can't vanish without telling someone. Koume-"

"I know. I just... I never get any quiet."

"...I have to take you back."

Ganondorf gritted his teeth as anger welled inside him, but stayed quiet as he got up and went with his sister. It wasn't her fault. 

It was just... So unfair.

The voices in his head, a permanent feature now, replied.

_"This world is unfair. The Goddesses destroyed so much in pursuit of so-called perfection, and we were cast aside. Hyrule, this entire world, follows in their footsteps, and it will keep happening until it is stopped. Together, we can create a fairer world."_

A fairer world. It sounded almost too good to believe, but it was his only hope now. Perhaps, in a strange way, Koume and Kotake were right. 

They had given him the strength he needed.


End file.
